Governor okay with others taking VSB's portfolios

CHENNAI: Governor R N Ravi, while not agreeing to Minister V Senthil Balaji continuing as Minister, gave his assent to the handing over of portfolios held by him to other Ministers in the State Cabinet on the recommendations of Chief Minister M K Stalin, the Raj Bhavan announced on Friday.

Industries Minister Thangam Thennarasu would take care of Electricity and Non-Conventional Energy Development portfolios, while Minister for Housing and Urban Development S Muthusamy was entrusted with Prohibition and Excise and Molasses, the notification said.

However, the Governor ‘has not agreed to V Senthil Balaji continuing any longer as a member of the Council of Ministers as he is facing criminal proceedings for moral turpitude and is in judicial custody,’ the notification said.

Demanding the dismissal of Senthil Balaji from the Ministry, AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami called for a protest by this party members in front of all the District Collectors’ offices in the State at 10 am on June 21, Wednesday.

The protest was also to condemn the DMK government for its failure to control corruption, price hike, breakdown of law and order and other irregularities, he said in a statement saying that retaining of Senthil Balaji, who had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), in the Ministry by the Chief Minister amounted to betraying the people of the State.

Senthil Balaji, who was referred to the Kauvery Hospital in Chennai on Thursday ‘with history of cardiac symptoms,’ was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and undergoing tests. A press release from the hospital co-founder and executive director, Aravindan Selvaraj, said the Minister had been advised to undergo early Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (CABG) surgery.

He was being looked after by a team of doctors and nurses at the ICU with cardio monitoring and he was examined by senior cardio thoracic surgeon A R Raghuraman, the press release said.

It is learnt that the ED officials were very particular that the medical treatment given to Senthil Balaji, who is in their custody, had the approval of doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and hence those doctors were expected to examine him.

Meanwhile, the Governor’s earlier refusal to agree to the recommendations of the Council of Ministers came in for criticism from several political parties. CPM State Secretary K Balakrishnan regretted that the Union Government was not in a position to advise the Governor that he should abide by the rules and regulations.

There was no rule that the Government had to seek the Governor’s permission to change portfolios of Ministers and just because a Governor rejected a request for change of portfolio would not happen, Balakrishnan said in reference to Ravi’s earlier stand.

TNCC president K S Alagiri also said that the Chief Minister was empowered to change Ministers or their portfolios without the Governor accent and that Ravi’s earlier contention only indicated his lack of faith in democracy.